Category Archives: UK news

Appeal court rejects last-ditch legal bid to block flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda – live

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Court of appeal judges have rejected a last-ditch legal bid to block a flight due to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda on Tuesday

Q: Your Northern Ireland protocol plan is holed below the water line because it has so much opposition in your party, isn’t it?

Johnson says the government needs to resolve the problems with the protocol.

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Former soldier says training kicked in when he killed neighbours in Somerset

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Collin Reeves tells court security light flashing on reminded him of war zone flares and he could not remember attacking couple

A former commando who stabbed his neighbours to death after a long-running parking dispute has claimed his military training kicked in when a bright white security light flashed on, reminding him of flares in a war zone.

Collin Reeves told a murder jury he dived on to his front, instinctively taking cover, and accepted that he must then have gone into the home of Jennifer and Stephen Chapple and killed them with his ceremonial commando dagger, though he insisted he could not remember the actual attack.

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Ukraine asks the west for huge rise in heavy artillery supply

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Zelenskiy adviser says far more hardware is needed to reach ‘heavy weapons parity’ with Russia and drive out its forces

Ukraine has called on the west to supply 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers before a key meeting on Wednesday amid concern in some quarters it is pushing its demands for Nato-standard weapons to the limit.

The maximalist request was made publicly by Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, on Twitter on Monday where he argued that Ukraine needed “heavy weapons parity” to defeat Russia and end the war.

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Libel loss for Arron Banks gives welcome fillip to media industry

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Analysis: Ruling bucks trend for wealthy individuals to suppress public interest reporting via courts

The decision by a high court judge to dismiss a libel claim brought against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr by the multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks is a timely shot in the arm for public interest journalism.

Concerns have long been mounting that the legal landscape in England and Wales places excessive restrictions on reporting, with London – where the high court is situated – often described as the libel capital of the world.

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Improved disease control in public buildings ‘could save UK billions a year’

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Measures such as improved ventilation would boost economy by helping prevent ill health, says report

Mandating improved ventilation and other forms of disease control in public buildings could save the UK economy billions of pounds each year through the prevention of ill health and its societal impacts, according to a report.

It is the first study to comprehensively evaluate the health, social and economic costs of airborne infections, including Covid. Even without a pandemic, seasonal respiratory diseases cost the UK about £8bn a year in disruption and sick days, said the report by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. In the event of another severe pandemic within the next 60 years, the societal cost could be as high as £23bn a year.

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Kevin Spacey to appear in UK court on sexual assault charges

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Actor charged with four counts of sexual assault to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday

Kevin Spacey will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men, the Metropolitan police said.

The Oscar-winning actor has been charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men, Scotland Yard added. He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

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Ryanair cabin crew in Spain vote to hold two three-day strikes

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Move could add to Europe’s travel problems, although airline does not expect widespread disruption

Cabin crew working for Ryanair in Spain have voted to hold six days of strikes at the end of June and early July, potentially adding to the disruption affecting air travel across Europe.

The Spanish-based staff in the USO and SITCPLA unions will walk out for two three-day strikes from 24 June to 26 June and 30 June to 2 July.

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Fury as government waters down post-Brexit food standards

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Strategy described as ‘missed opportunity’ as final wording merely commits to ‘considering’ animal welfare

Animal welfare campaigners, food policy experts and farmers have reacted with fury after the government watered down post-Brexit trade deal standards in its food strategy, released on Monday.

In a version of the strategy leaked to the Guardian on Friday, the government committed to making it easier for countries to import goods if they have high animal welfare standards.

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Bolsonaro says ‘something wicked’ done to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Brazil president comments on journalist and Indigenous expert’s fate amid unconfirmed claims bodies have been found in Amazon

The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said he believes “something wicked” was done to the missing British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, amid unconfirmed claims their bodies had been found in the Amazon.

British relatives of Phillips said they had been contacted by the Brazilian embassy in London on Monday morning and informed that two unidentified bodies had been found during the search operation.

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UK ramps up gas and oil exports to EU amid Russia’s war in Ukraine

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Britain’s goods exports to EU a record £16.4bn in April despite impact of Brexit

The UK has drastically increased the volume of natural gas being pumped to the EU amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, powering a record monthly rise in goods exports to the continent despite Brexit.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show EU goods exports rose for the third consecutive month to £16.4bn in April, the highest monthly level in current prices since comparable records began in 1997.

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Rwanda deportation flight at risk despite loss of two late appeals

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Home Office source says individual legal cases mean too few people may be able to board plane anyway

Two last-ditch legal challenges that attempted to halt the inaugural flight carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda have been rejected by judges.

The court of appeal upheld a previous decision to reject an injunction blocking the first flight, which was due to take off for the east African state on Tuesday.

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Children deemed adults by Home Office could be deported to Rwanda

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Children’s and refugees charities raise concerns after detention of three children misjudged as adults in offshoring programme

Concerns are mounting that children wrongly assessed as adults by the Home Office could end up being offshored to Rwanda.

The Guardian understands that three age-disputed children who the Home Office declared to be adults and detained in preparation for offshoring to Rwanda have now been released. It is understood that concerns have been raised about whether at least three more detainees threatened with removal to the east African country are children rather than adults.

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‘Germany was 10 years behind’: how Brexit helped Europe’s galleries

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Curators who left the UK after the referendum took with them experience that is reshaping their cities’ art scenes

One of the things Stephanie Rosenthal acquired during her 10-year stint in London’s gallery world is an appreciation of the British art of queueing with a smile on your face.

After the German art historian quit her job as chief curator at the Hayward Gallery in the wake of Britain’s referendum on leaving the European Union, she exported her specialist skills back to her country of birth.

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Items belonging to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira found in Amazon

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Clothing and backpack belonging to the missing British journalist and Indigenous expert found by small but determined search team

Personal items belonging to the British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira have been found in an area of flooded forest near the Amazonian river on which they were last seen.

The objects were discovered on Saturday thanks to a small but determined Indigenous search team that has spent the past seven days on the frontline of the hunt for the two missing men who had both, in different ways, championed the Indigenous cause.

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Four in 10 pandemic-era mutual aid groups still active, UK data suggests

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Groups set up to help out neighbours in 2020 are now helping people cope with cost of living, say campaigners

Four in 10 of the mutual aid groups that were set up at the start of the pandemic to make it easier for neighbours to help each other are still active and many have become established charities helping local people cope with the cost of living crisis, analysis suggests.

When the pandemic began, an estimated 4,000 mutual aid groups sprang up to offer assistance to those in need with a range of essential activities, from food shopping to collecting prescriptions and providing Covid information.

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CBI warns UK government over Northern Ireland protocol

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Impasse over Brexit deal forcing companies to reconsider investing in Britain, says business lobby group

The UK’s foremost business lobby group has warned the government that its threat to override the Northern Ireland protocol is forcing companies to think again about investing in Britain and dragging down the economy.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said immediate talks with the EU, rather than political grandstanding, were needed to resolve the impasse over the protocol, which governs post-Brexit trade between the EU, Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

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Food plan for England condemned by its own lead adviser

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Henry Dimbleby says government’s response to his review of food system shows no vision and ‘is not a strategy’

The government’s lead adviser on food issues has condemned what ministers have billed as a landmark national plan to combat food poverty and obesity, saying it is “not a strategy” and warning it could mean more children will go hungry.

Henry Dimbleby’s verdict is further bad news for Boris Johnson as the white paper is a direct response to last year’s wide-ranging review of Britain’s food system, which was led by the restaurateur.

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Unions call for delay to Rwanda policy until legal position fully tested

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Appeal against plan to remove asylum seekers who arrive in the UK via unofficial routes due to take place on Monday

Protests have taken place before a possible first flight removing asylum seekers to Rwanda, as unions said that officials should not be asked to take part in a policy that may subsequently be declared illegal.

With the first flight in the deportation scheme scheduled to take place on Tuesday evening, activists also promised to target the Spanish charter airline understood to be providing the aircraft.

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Brace for heatwaves next week and more often, says Met Office

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Temperatures expected to hit 32C in south-east England on Friday as forecasters warn heatwaves becoming more likely

Temperatures could reach the mid-30s in parts of the UK this week as forecasters said that Britain should brace itself for its “first properly hot summer’s day”.

The coming months will also bring heatwaves which the Met Office has previously warned are becoming more likely due to climate change and the higher concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere.

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Hundreds gather in Manchester to oppose Rwanda deportation plan

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Protesters march in city centre as anger grows over Priti Patel’s refugee scheme

Hundreds of Mancunians – many of them from charities, campaign groups and religious organisations – gathered in the city’s St Peter’s Square on Sunday to protest against the government’s plan to deport refugees to Rwanda.

With just two days to go before the first refugees are due to board flights to the central African country, the protest was one of a number taking place across the UK, and was happening amid further legal challenges after the high court ruled last week that the flights can go ahead.

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